Industrial Operations

Matt Kelly says packaging automation pays back under two years

Matt Kelly and Joe Bradley say brownfield warehouses often miss packing until faster picking exposes the pack-out bottleneck.

Construction robots are starting to roll out like software, and Caterpillar knows the drill

Caterpillar is porting lessons from autonomous mining into AI rollout, as Gravis raises $200M and Starlink-style LEO links reshape remote ops.

Augury’s first appearance in Gartner’s APM Market Guide signals that plant AI is moving toward agent-led automation

Augury’s inclusion in Gartner’s 2026 APM Market Guide and Gartner’s July view of AI-enabled automation point to a new buying pattern: agent orchestration as an

The importance of Data in a Conveyorized Finishing System

In conveyorized finishing operations, the volume of data generated across a single production shift is substantial. Paint batches, carrier timestamps, load bar launches, line speeds, and process recipes all produce records that can either be captured and used or quietly lost. For finishing operation

IntelliFinishing Systems Adapt Better When Labor is Short

Labor availability has become one of the most persistent operational challenges across manufacturing. Recruiting skilled workers, particularly in specialized roles like painting and finishing, is difficult in most markets. For facilities running traditional finishing lines, a single absent employee

Prince Hydraulics Finally Gets The SCADA System They Wanted

For Prince Hydraulics, the road to a functioning SCADA system was more than a decade in the making. As far back as 2011, a group of plant employees presented to corporate leadership with a clear ask: find a way to bring all the information operators need into one place and make it easy to apply to t

The Challenge of Being a Custom Coater

For custom coaters operating as job shops, no two days look the same. Part sizes vary, customer specifications shift, and the shop floor has to adapt quickly to whatever work comes through the door. That kind of environment demands finishing equipment that can keep pace, and it is precisely where th

AI kaizens, agentic systems, and pricing pressure: what manufacturers are actually doing with industrial AI in 2026

From TE Connectivity's AI vision gains to outcome-based pricing debates, industrial AI is moving from pilot to operational reality across the plant floor.

73% of mid-market manufacturers are still testing AI, with zero at full deployment

New Kaufman Rossin survey data reveals most mid-market manufacturers are stuck in AI experimentation, held back by siloed data and legacy ERP systems.

Robots, AI, and IIoT are reshaping the factory floor, but the real work is in integration

Robotics, AI quality control, and IIoT-driven predictive maintenance are converging in manufacturing, pushing ops leaders to rethink how they buy, deploy, and g

Industrial vision sector expands across automation, robotics, and AI-driven inspection

The A3's Vision Industry Insights hub tracks 560+ developments across machine vision, robotics, and AI inspection, here's what enterprise ops teams need to know.

AI and automation's adoption gap: what manufacturers must act on now

80% of U.S. factories have zero automation. New tools and C-suite strategy shifts are changing the calculus for operations teams.

Robotics, AI accountability, and autonomous forklifts: automation's operational priorities this week

From ABB's new Visual SLAM forklift to a 70% AI accountability gap, this week's automation developments carry direct implications for ops and procurement teams.

Chinese industrial robots now reach 148 countries as factory task complexity rises

Chinese-manufactured robots are handling complex factory tasks and shipping to 148 countries, raising urgent questions for global procurement and ops teams.

Siemens and IFS partner to close the engineering-to-operations gap with industrial AI

Siemens and IFS announced a strategic partnership to connect design, manufacturing execution, and asset lifecycle data in a closed-loop industrial AI platform.

End-of-line automation is the next deployment frontier for manufacturers

Nearly half of manufacturers plan end-of-line automation within 24 months, per IndustryWeek. Here's what operations leaders need to evaluate now.

Physical AI hits the warehouse floor: five industrial robotics moves from June 2025

From truck unloading to no-code paint cobots, the latest industrial robotics announcements carry concrete implications for ops and procurement teams.

Robotics roundup: humanoid application centers, drone scale, and inbound logistics automation mark shift to execution

From a Dutch humanoid application centre to ANRA's 55,000 monthly drone ops, enterprise robotics deployments are accelerating fast.

Prince SCADA System case study

For years, operators on Prince's shop floor faced a familiar but costly problem: the information they needed to do their jobs was scattered. Programs lived in one place, blueprints in another, operation sheets somewhere else entirely. Getting set up at a station meant hunting across file folders, ic

Automate 2026: Inside Chicago's Preview of Robotics, AI and Humanoids

Automate 2026 opens June 22 in Chicago with 1,000+ exhibitors, a new humanoid pavilion, and a sector-wide debate on why AI, not machines, now limits factory perfo

FANUC America Debuts Ultra‑Lightweight CRX‑3iA Collaborative Robot and New Capabilities Across the CRX Lineup

A new ultra‑portable cobot and expanded CRX features give manufacturers more ways to automate small tasks, heavy moves, palletizing, welding and high‑mix operations.

Why Connectivity Has Become the Cornerstone of Modern Industrial Automation

Industrial automation is in the middle of a profound shift, as manufacturers push beyond basic control toward fully connected, data-driven operations that bridge the plant floor and the enterprise. What began years ago as early experiments in digital transformation—simply getting PLC data into IT systems—has now accelerated into a critical business imperative fueled by…

FANUC’s Innovative System of the Year Recipient – Don’t Fear the Robot, Thank It!

ARC Specialties, under the leadership of President Dan Allford, continues to make waves in the robotics and automation industry. They recently won of FANUC’s Innovative System of the Year Award, further strengthening their reputation as an industry leader. This remarkable project involved the integration of robots in offshore drilling operations, specifically in the assembly and…

IT and Data Center Management Best Practices: From the Perspective of an Expert

There used to be a time when all of a company’s data centers were within the same building, always in a room chock full of different devices with heat emanating from within. It was usually very expensive and complex, and often included a host of complications and safety hazards. With the advent of technology,…

Infinite IoT: The Future of Supply Chain Operations

Since Covid took the world by storm in 2020, supply chain issues have come to the forefront of the news as no one was exempt from the challenges of getting common everyday items. And while it doesn’t take a global pandemic to disrupt supply chain operations, it was this very event that made people aware…

DevOps: Understanding the 7 Key Stages of Agile Maturity Ladder

DevOps, CI/CD, and Agile delivery are the focus of many operations group. Viewing and understanding the tiers of maturity diagram can help an organization benchmark its current maturity level. In addition, the system provides a roadmap of the steps needed to reach its desired target level. Every business knows the challenges of keeping up with…

Your DevOps maturity journey – part 2

Is your process for delivering new software applications detailed and compliant? If your organization is struggling with concerns around continuous delivery, integration, and validation, DevOps can help. DevOps is a software engineering practice that aims at unifying software development (Dev) and software operation (Ops). DevOps principles call for monitoring all steps of software creation, beginning…

Your DevOps maturity journey – part 1

DevOps is a software engineering practice that aims at unifying software development (Dev) and software operation (Ops). DevOps principles call for monitoring all steps of software creation, beginning with integration, testing, and release, and then moving on to deployment and infrastructure management. This approach is more effective and efficient, leading to shorter development cycles. GalaxE…